Scottish Executive

Care Commission

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many organisations, registered with the Care Commission, failed to comply with one or more national care standards in each year since the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001 came into force, detailing the standards involved in each case.

Mr Tom McCabe: This is an operational matter for the Care Commission. The commission are currently setting up an advisory working group to develop a system which will report to both the public and ministers on the quality of regulated care services. Details can be found at: http://www.carecommission.com/

Emergency Services

Richard Lochhead (North East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what recent steps have been taken to assess the capability of Scotland's emergency services to cope with terrorist attacks in light of the present international climate; whether it has been part of any UK-wide initiatives on the issue, and whether it has received any financial assistance from Her Majesty's Government for such purposes.

Cathy Jamieson: The Scottish Executive, in conjunction with all the emergency services in Scotland, operates a process of continuous assessment of arrangements for protecting the public in an emergency to ensure that we are prepared for any eventuality, including the threat of terrorist attack. Regular exercises are conducted throughout the UK. There is close co-operation between the Executive and the UK Government. Additional funding has been provided in Scotland, as well as south of the border, to enhance the capability and equipment of all the emergency services.

Equine Industry

Mr Andrew Welsh (Angus) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on the amount of funding allocated to organisations involved in equine sports and the equine industry through (a)  sportscotland, (b) local authorities, (c) the New Opportunities Fund and (d) UK Sport, in each of the last three years.

The Executive have supplied the following corrected answer:

Mr Frank McAveety: Sportscotland awards an annual development grant to the Scottish Equestrian Association, which it recognises as the umbrella body for equestrian activities in Scotland, to develop the sport. This has been set at £16,500 over the last three years and will be increased to £29,730 in 2004-05.

  Under the Lottery Sports Fund, sportscotland awarded equestrianism £321,694 in 2001-02, £98,632 in 2002-03 and £45,449 in 2003-04 over a number of its grant programmes.

  Information on funding from local authorities is not held centrally.

  The New Opportunities Fund does not have an explicit remit or programmes to support equestrian activities. It has occasionally, through some of its broader grant schemes, awarded funding to a small number of individual projects that incorporate an equestrian element but it is not possible to disaggregate the amount of funding specifically for equestrianism.

  UK Sport provides funding to the British Equestrian Federation (BEF), the recognised governing body of horse sports in the UK. The BEF was awarded Exchequer grants of £187,000 in 2001-02 and 2002-03 and £203,666 in 2003-04.

  Over the last three years, UK Sport has awarded the BEF £2,663,334 lottery grant towards the delivery of the federation’s world class performance plan. A further £50,500 was released over the past year to support individual training needs in preparation for this year’s Olympic Games.

  UK Sport has also supported BEF under its governing body modernisation programme. In 2003-04 the Federation received £150,000 towards the costs of a review of its organisation and structure and a revision of its constitution.

Freight

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what funding is available, and from what sources, to encourage a shift in movement of goods from road to sea and, in particular, what funding is available to promote the carriage of goods by sea from Aberdeen and the Northern Isles to the European ferry service at Rosyth.

Nicol Stephen: The creation of the facilities required at Rosyth to operate the direct ferry service from Scotland to mainland Europe depended on a Scottish Executive funded Freight Facilities Grant (FFG) of over £10 million. This grant scheme is open to any company which requires additional facilities in order to transfer freight from road to water or rail. As well as this capital grant scheme we are planning to introduce shortly a new Waterborne Freight Grant (WFG) scheme devised to contribute to any revenue short fall during the first three years of new shipping operations where freight is transferred from road to water. We are currently seeking EU state aid clearance for this grant scheme. Our budget for the FFG and WFG grant schemes for 2004-05 is £14.6 million.

  Any companies seeking FFG or WFG support for projects that transfer freight from road to rail and sea, including the carriage of goods by sea to feed into the Rosyth-Zeebrugge ferry service, should approach the Scottish Executive to establish eligibility.

Hospitals

Mike Pringle (Edinburgh South) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive how much income has been generated through car parking charges at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.

Malcolm Chisholm: This information is held locally by Lothian University Hospitals NHS Division and not by the Scottish Executive. Any queries regarding such income should be directed to NHS Lothian.

Schools

Rhona Brankin (Midlothian) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what it considers to be good practice by local authorities in consulting local communities on the closure of rural schools.

Peter Peacock: Parliament set in place a number of statutory requirements governing consultations on school closure proposals in the form of the Education (Publication and Consultation Etc) (Scotland) Regulations 1981. The Executive expects authorities to implement the requirements upon them fully and in a sensitive and considered way given the significance of the issues to local communities and individuals. Authorities are accountable locally for their decisions on such matters.

Schools

Rhona Brankin (Midlothian) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it concurs with Scottish Office policy from 1998 that there must be a credible educational justification for the closure of schools and that education authorities should apply a test of proportionate advantage to any proposed closure of a rural primary school.

Rhona Brankin (Midlothian) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether local authorities should, when proposing to close schools, ensure that the educational and financial gains deriving from any closure stand up to scrutiny and outweigh the negative effects that the closure may have on the rural community, children and families concerned.

Peter Peacock: The test of proportionate advantage as set out in 1998 by Brian Wilson MP, when Scottish Office Minister for Education, reminds authorities that in any school closure proposal they should take account of a wide range of issues and weigh up the advantages and disadvantages before reaching a decision.

  Educational considerations should figure strongly in an authority’s assessment of a particular proposal, along with community, and other financial considerations. Authorities must also always be mindful of their statutory duty to secure adequate and efficient provision of school education. Thus, in reviewing and considering the pattern of school provision, and any proposed changes to that, education authorities have to take account of their responsibilities for the whole of the area they serve, along with issues specific to particular schools.

Special Advisers

David McLetchie (Edinburgh Pentlands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-33832 by Mr Andy Kerr on 18 February 2003, what the total annual cost was of employment of special advisers in the last year for which figures are available and how many special advisers have been employed in each year since 1999.

Mr Andy Kerr: The total actual cost for 2003-04 was £596,555.

  Details are:

  

 
 Salary
 ERNIC
 Pension 
  Contribution
 Total


 2003-04
 £473,027
 £61,758
 £61,770
 £596,555



  The number of advisers in each year since 1999* is:

  

 Year
 Number


 1999-2000
 7


 2000-01
 10


 2001-02
 8


 2002-03
 9


 2003-04
 11



  Note: *At end year - 31 March.

Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body

Parliamentary Commissioners

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Presiding Officer what codes of conduct there are for Scottish parliamentary commissioners.

Robert Brown (on behalf of the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body): There are no codes of conduct in place for commissioners appointed or nominated by the Parliament. The SPCB will shortly be examining proposals put forward by the commissioners for a voluntary code of conduct.

  For those individuals nominated by the Parliament and appointed by Her Majesty The Queen, the legislation establishing the posts provides that in the exercise of their functions they are not subject to the direction or control of any member of the Parliament, any member of the Scottish Executive or the Parliamentary corporation.

  The Scottish Parliamentary Standards Commissioner is currently the only such post appointed by the SPCB with the agreement of Parliament. The commissioner must comply with any directions given by the Parliament in relation to the carrying out of his functions. In particular, the legislation provides for such directions as to the procedure to be followed when making an investigation into a complaint.